Get Your vSphere License Key

Once you have purchased VMware vSphere 4, you will receive a licensing confirmation email with your license keys or you can retrieve your license keys from the vSphere License portal.

Deploy vSphere 4 utilizing the ESXi hypervisor architecture

vSphere 4 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture. VMware ESXi is the latest hypervisor architecture from VMware and, as of the vSphere 4 release, VMware’s recommended best practice when deploying VMware vSphere.

Please note: After August 15, 2013, you will no longer be able to download or generate license keys for use with vSphere ESX Hypervisor 4.x or the VMware Management Assistant version 1 or 4. For more information, please visit:
http://www.vmware.com/go/esx-end-of-availability